Guns must be banned for those with mental health issues

not old enough to remember the pains and hurts of the 1960's. They don't understand, as it was simply a history lesson for them in school. Those of us who are older, who lived it, will understand.

I was listening to a bunch of Oldies, from 1958-1975 on You Tube, and came across this song, Abraham, Martin, and John by Dion, which I haven't heard in many years. Take a moment and listen to the song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5hFMy4pTrs

When I listened to it, I got tears in my eyes. It was like a time machine taking me back to when I was 12 years old and my President, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated. I had seen him up close, only a week prior, when he dedicated the Delaware Turnpike section of I-95. Then a few years later, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy were also gunned down by assassins. Three truly great men were assassinated, simply because they wanted to do good things for the little guy.

After hearing this song, I turned off You Tube, and reflected on that past. That was when I got angry. That whole chorus of disaster started in 1963 with the JFK assassination, and here we are 56 years later and the only thing we've accomplished, on the issue of gun violence, is to make security for the President, Congress, and famous folks a lot better.

We've not done anything else to fix the problem of folks who have mental health issues from legally buying and owning a gun or rifle, thus the school, church, synagogue, mosque, and mall shootings we're plagued with in our nation.

Consider, those three great men were liberals, so it's pretty likely the shooters were conservatives. The same conservatives who today believe that the Founding Fathers wanted any and all men to be able to have and own a gun or a rifle, even the "not so right in the head folks."

Somehow, I truly do not believe those wise men, who founded the United States, wanted someone they would have called an "Imbecile", to be able to own a gun / rifle. Imbecile is an old Psychology term no longer used, but considered such a person to be above the level of idiocy, having a mental age of 7 or 8 years and an intelligence quotient of 25-50.

So, to call someone an idiot is to say they're more mentally handicapped than an imbecile. I learn something new every day. In either case, I seriously doubt the Founding Fathers wanted such folks to be able to legally own and shoot guns / rifles, even a single shot muzzle loader.

Another aspect of this is the renewed uptick of violence, in our nation, that is being done by White Supremist's and Kluxer types, as in Charlottesville, VA. Sadly, we may be importing this sort of violence overseas, as the New Zealand mosque shootings imply, due to what our president and his followers say and do.

It was widely reported that a hate-filled manifesto was written by that New Zealand gunman that included references to the American Second Amendment. The gunman wrote, he hoped conflicts over firearms would lead to the US splitting along cultural, political, and racial lines. He also said that he supports President Trump as a symbol of renewed white identity.

Trump said, later in a news conference, that he had not seen the manifesto and did not see rising white nationalism. He said, “I don't really. I think it’s a small group of people.” To that I simply say, to the President, balderdash.

After 56 years, it’s way past time to put restrictions on those who need Psychotic drugs, from being allowed to legally own or shoot any gun or rifle. Understand the problem, as long as they stay on their meds, they’re OK, but there’s no one watching to insure they stay on their meds.

There have been folks who decide to stop taking their Psychotic meds and then they spiral back into a very mentally unstable place, and then become a danger to the rest of us. Let me be crystal clear, I’m not advocating we take guns away from sane, legal American citizens, only those who have mental health issues where they could become a danger to themselves and others. I believe the Founding Fathers would agree.

All this from hearing an old song.

Mike Cannatelli’s column appears every other week in the print edition of the Avon Grove Sun and the Kennett News.